3/30/2001 – LSD to Prozac and back to LSD?!

In the last half century we have witnessed Eli Lilly bring America LSD and
then Prozac. Now that the public has been brainwashed about the “benefits” of
Prozac and its clones, it is time to once again attempt to sell us on LSD.
After admitting in this article the truth of the argument I have made for ten
years against the SSRI antidepressants – they work like LSD in the brain (”
Nichols says there is some indication these drugs work on the serotonin
pathway in the brain, the same target of the selective serotonin reuptake
inhibitor drugs Prozac, Paxil and Zoloft, used to treat depression, anxiety
and obsessive compulsive disorder.”) they now work to sell us on the
“benefits” of LSD. After all, if we can as a society have given similar drugs
– the SSRIs – such a warm welcome, we must now be ready to accept LSD, the
CIA’s drug of choice for a mind control experimentation, with welcome arms as
well.

Has the world gone completely mad?! Obviously! We now have the National
Institute on Drug Abuse encouraging us to use a drug, already declared
dangerous and of no medical use, when they are suppose to educate us on the
dangers of it. Perhaps the name of the institute should be changed to the
National Institute for Production of Drug Abuse. At this point it would
certainly be more appropriate. Clearly they are counting on their lack of
educating the public about drugs to have produced enough public ignorance of
drugs and their effects so as to allow them to get away with this one. As I
have said repeatedly, the drug companies count on our memory loss. They
expect us to forget within a generation our experience with a drug and then
pull the same drug on us again. They generally give it a new name, or a new
twist, but the more you learn about drugs, the more you realize that the
drugs remain the same.

Obviously on this one they are counting on mass stupidity among the general
population for its acceptance. I would hope that everyone of you is working
as hard as you can to educate all around you to the dangers of these drugs.
Time is of the essence! If you have not yet figured out that we are in a
battle for our lives, you have missed something. Our society as we have known
it and our future is at stake. The Brave New World is here. And with them
feeling so confident as to take such a bold and blatant step as this all that
can be said at this point is, “God help us all!”

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Hallucinogens Among Oldest Drugs
Trials Must Be Rigorously Designed
Critics: Risks Outweigh Benefits

At Harvard, a psychiatrist is studying whether the hallucinogenic cactus
peyote creates any long-term memory or attention problems in the American
Indians who take the drug as part of religious rituals.

A University of Arizona psychiatrist is poised to begin researching whether
taking the hallucinogen psilocybin under controlled circumstances may help
people suffering with obsessive compulsive disorder.

And another Harvard psychiatrist is in the beginning phases of designing a
protocol that may employ LSD or another hallucinogen to see if it helps
terminally ill people suffering from depression and pain.

With some support from the private New Mexico-based Heffter Institute, these
researchers, along with others in the United States and abroad, represent a
small movement of scientists looking at the possible medical benefits of
hallucinogens for some psychiatric conditions.

Hallucinogens Among Oldest Drugs

Hallucinogens are among the oldest known group of drugs that have been used
for their ability to alter human perception and mood, according to the Drug
Enforcement Agency. They have been used for medical, social and religious
practices.

More recently, synthetic hallucinogens have been used recreationally, with
hippies from the ’60s, such as the now deceased ex-Harvard psychology
professor Timothy Leary, first promoting their use with the famous slogan,
Turn on, Tune in, Drop Out.

Today, hallucinogens are deemed drugs of abuse by the DEA, with no known
medical benefit. Approximately 8 percent to 10 percent of high school
seniors tried a hallucinogen in the past year according to a University of
Michigan study of drug use.

It remains unclear how these drugs exert their action in the brain, but
anecdotal evidence and some earlier studies indicate they may help a variety
of psychiatric conditions, says David E. Nichols, founder of the Heffter
Institute, in Santa Fe, and professor of medical chemistry and molecular
pharmacology at Purdue School of Pharmacy in West Lafayette, Ind.

Nichols says there is some indication these drugs work on the serotonin
pathway in the brain, the same target of the selective serotonin reuptake
inhibitor drugs Prozac, Paxil and Zoloft, used to treat depression, anxiety
and obsessive compulsive disorder.

He founded the institute in 1993 to help give scientific credibility to
medical research on hallucinogens. After years of fund-raising, the
institute now has enough money to help scientists do serious research.

Trials Must Be Rigorously Designed

Since opinions are so strongly held about hallucinogens, it is essential
that any studies in this area be performed with the most rigorous modern
methods and great care to have an impartial approach, says Dr. Harrison
Pope, professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, who is leading the
four-year peyote study in American Indians.

Funded largely by the National Institute of Drug Abuse and Heffter, Popes
group will be comparing three populations of American Indians peyote users
in religious ceremonies, alcoholics, and local tribespeople to see if
peyote use is associated with cognitive problems.

Pope is also developing a trial to follow up on studies from the ’60s and
’70s suggesting that hallucinogens helped ease anxiety and depression in the
terminally ill and also reduced their need for pain medication.

The challenge is to design the study in such a way that if the drug shows
benefits, skeptics are convinced, and if it doesnt help, proponents of
hallucinogenic use dont challenge the research as inadequate, Pope says.

Psilocybin mushroom

These studies take time to develop to get that scientific imprimatur. They
also need to get review, by local medical institutions and governmental
regulatory authorities. The DEA and the FDA is still reviewing a protocol by
Dr. Francisco Moreno, an assistant professor of psychiatry at the University
of Arizona in Tucson, hoping to study a chemically synthesized psilocybin
for obsessive-compulsives. His hospital gave him permission to start the
study.

A protocol of psilocybin and depression in Switzerland also is undergoing
revision before it is submitted to the government authorities there, Nichols
says.

Critics: Risks Outweigh Benefits

Some scientists, however, question the potential risks of these studies.

The problem with this kind of research is that when average people hear or
read about them in this preliminary stage they might think these drugs could
be good for them now, says Una McCann, associate professor of psychiatry at
Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. But it remains unknown until the studies
are finished, McCann says.

Dr. Gregory Collins the director of the Alcohol and Drug Recovery program at
the Cleveland Clinic, in Cleveland, Ohio, believes the risks outweigh any
benefits.

Some of these drugs have been shown to have long-term consequences in
healthy people, Collins says. I would be reluctant to try them in the
mentally ill.

Nichols, however, defends the research. I think we will find some medical
benefit of these drugs, Nichols says. There is no other drug class that
doesnt have some medical utility.

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